Floor maintenance machines used for cleaning, polishing and waxing floors typically include a "pad driver" that is rotatably connected to a drive motor. The pad driver itself is considered a driving element and its purpose is to provide the driving force to a cleaning, polishing or abrasive pad that is attached to the pad driver. In order to provide the required driving force, the surface of the pad driver must establish a frictional coupling between itself and the pad.
Several methods can be used to provide the required frictional coupling. In one method, the pad driver is molded with a plurality of axially extending elements which are intended to, at least partially, penetrate the cleaning pad that is generally made of a fibrous material. In the past, the molding of these driving elements integrally with the pad driver have required complex molds which are not only costly to manufacture, but are costly to maintain. These prior pad driver molds have included a series of fixed and movable bars which define cavities for the axially extending driving elements.
It has also been found that molded pad drivers in the past have had less than optimum gripping contact with the attached cleaning pad. It is desirable to have an increased gripping force between the pad driver and the cleaning pad.